Ready to Bear (13 page)

“I doubt that,” Billy said. Every muscle of his body was wound up to strike.

“You will meet me tonight at Urban Dwellers. We’re going to have us a little shifter fight. Winner takes all,” Joshua said.

“How do you know I’ll show up?” Billy asked, his voice grating in the air.

“Because, my dear sheriff, I am the one who poisoned you.” Joshua laughed a harsh and angry laugh. Then he shot through a door next to him that Thea hadn’t noticed before.

“Billy, don’t!” Thea cried out as she saw Billy spring forward. The two wolves growled fiercely in their direction before catapulting themselves through the same doorway where Joshua had just disappeared. “They’ll trap you in there!”

She could tell Billy was on the precipice of shifting, but she was relieved to see him stop in his tracks. Her words had gotten through. No matter what Joshua had said about waiting until that evening to try to exact whatever vengeance he had in mind on Billy and the Greyelf Clan, she had no doubt that he’d take advantage of an opportune time to move his timeline up more. Psychotics were like that.

Just then she heard the ding of the elevator behind them. The doors slid open.

“What the fuck is going on?” she heard Eric’s voice demand.

“Oh, good. The cavalry has arrived,” Billy said sarcastically.

“You aren’t seriously considering going through with it, right?” Eric said the same words for the tenth time. They had congregated in the offices at Urban Dwellers. Billy had availed himself on the shower and a set of fresh clothes from the supply that Eric kept at the club. It wasn’t exactly ideal, but the button down shirt and slacks were a nice change from the lost and found clothes he had been wearing all day. Although, he could tell by the fabric and the way the clothing breathed against his skin that the clothes probably cost more than his monthly salary on the force.

“I don’t think I really have a choice,” Billy said. He sat on the couch where they had sat just the evening before. Billy wanted to pull Thea closer to him, but he knew that Eric wouldn’t think highly of seeing that their relationship had entered a new stage. He thought that he should probably pull Eric aside at some point and confess to his feelings for Thea before the man figured it out on his own. The last thing Billy needed was a pissed off werepanther on his hands.

“I never expected that Joshua would have chosen to become a shifter. From everything we knew about him previously, his hatred of our kind ran as deep as it got,” Billy said. “It’s a beautifully executed ploy, when you think about it. He caught me totally unaware, and I’m at his beck and call.”

“Exactly, which is why this stinks to hell,” Kyle interrupted. They were waiting for Tony to make his appearance. Eric seemed to think that the more shifter minds they had on the case, the sooner they could figure out some other way out of the current situation. “He’s goaded you into a fight. He knows that you’ll enter it in good faith, and then that’s when the other shoe will fall.”

Billy felt Thea shiver next to him. The situation at the hotel had scared the shit out of him. He thought that there was a chance Thea could have gotten severely hurt, either from Joshua and his wolf buddies or by his own bear that he barely managed to keep in check.

“Speaking of shoes falling, how did things work out with Clarkson?” Eric asked. Billy had caught the other man watching him carefully during their trek from the hotel to Urban Dwellers. He’d insisted that no one talk about anything until they were safely ensconced within the club’s walls. Apparently, he thought there was a chance that they were being followed or eavesdropped on. In any other situation, Billy would have rolled his eyes and thought it was silly. Now he wasn’t so sure.

“Did you know that the Osten Clan was here?” Billy asked. It wasn’t a random question, but something that had been on his mind ever since the legend about poisonous injuries from enemy bloodlines had become a reality.

“We get outcasts from practically every clan here,” Eric said. “We don’t require them all to check in and register with us, you know. That isn’t how we do things here in Copper City.”

“So you really have no idea who or what shifters reside inside the city limits?” Billy found that hard to believe. The three men who formed the core of Urban Dwellers were as smart as they were secretive. They ran a crew inside Copper City that spoke to organization and structure. It wasn’t the willy-nilly kind of operation that Eric was trying to sell him on now.

“They aren’t bound to us, and they don’t have to agree to anything other than playing by a few simple, established rules as long as they choose to reside in Copper City,” Eric said. He paced the room. “One of those rules is no fucking around and bringing old clan issues into the city. That bullshit needs to be kept out. Everyone gets along, or you get out.”

“That’s working well so far today, don’t you think?” Billy couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

“It was working just fine until you got here,” Eric said.

“That’s enough,” Kyle said. His voice, although quiet, carried a tone that didn’t broker any argument. Billy had to wonder again, for all the bluster of not running with an alpha in Copper City, if there wasn’t one among the triad nonetheless. “Arguing and bickering isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

“The Osten Clan. That was on the diagram that Dr. Clarkson showed you,” Thea said. Billy knew that although she was quiet, she was taking everything in and processing it. Thea was quick, which was yet another thing he liked about her.

“Yes,” Billy said. “The Osten Clan is as old as the Greyelf Clan. They are southern state werewolves. Practically the opposite of the grizzlies in northern Minnesota in every way. We don’t often cross paths, and we give each other a wide berth when we do. The alpha of the Osten Clan not so respectfully declined to attend the Shifter Summit last year. The bad blood between our clans runs deep.”

“Why?” Thea asked.

Billy shrugged. “It has always been that way. I don’t know if there even is a true reason. It’s a hatred that is bred into the bones of the clans at this point. Which is why I ask if there are any Osten converts running around Copper City. Joshua obviously found them somehow on his own, and he’s had plenty of back-up both times I’ve seen him today.”

“That’s a problem,” Kyle said. “We don’t need any clan wars in Copper City. We are explicit about that rule.”

“Those two that you picked up last night that attacked Thea,” Billy said. “They were shifters.”

Eric looked at him. “Yes.”

“What kind?”

Eric blinked. His face turned grim. “Werewolf.”

“I don’t suppose you bothered to ask which clan they belonged to before they got to the city, did you?”

“That’s irrelevant,” Eric said. “Once they’re here, they’re part of the Urban Dwellers. We don’t force them to expose where they came from because their reasons for leaving their clans in the first place are usually pretty fucked up.”

“Runaways come here,” Billy said. He stood up. “You take in those who are running from problems and those that are problems. I told you that Joshua has a nose for mischief, and he was babbling something about not thinking big enough. I think he’s got a much bigger plan in mind, and what’s happening with me is just the start.”

“Is this guy really that confident that he’s just assuming he’ll win the shifter match?” Kyle asked. “Even on a good day, a match between a grizzly and a wolf is a match that is likely to swing in the grizzly’s favor.”

“That’s why he poisoned him first,” Thea said. The three men looked at her, and Billy saw the flush across her cheeks. He didn’t think that she meant to say the words out loud. She cleared her throat when he motioned for her to continue with her thought. “Dr. Clarkson said that whatever he gave Billy wouldn’t be able to hold up under the strain of a phase. So it isn’t a fair fight. Add in that we have no idea how long its effects are supposed to last anyway, and Billy stands at a distinct disadvantage, bear or not.”

“He could have just let him die,” Eric countered. “Why bother with all the dramatics? Why put his own skin at risk?”

“Well, he’s a lunatic,” Billy said. “But I think we’re still missing part of the picture. He had to assume that I would have asked you for help. I can’t help but think that as long as he’s pulling the strings on what we’re doing, that keeps our attention away from something else.”

“So he’s fucking with us,” Eric said, crossing his arms over his chest. He leaned back against the desk. Billy wasn’t fooled by the man’s casual stance. Eric was as wound up as he was but was doing a much better job of keeping it under wraps.

“It would appear so,” Kyle said. He stood up as well. “I need to get security up to speed on what’s going on tonight. We’re going to have to get organized.”

“Why would he want to have it here?” Thea asked suddenly.

“Because he wants a ready audience.” Tony appeared in the doorway that led up from the club. He held out a flyer in his hand. Billy could read the screaming red font from across the room. “Aside from this littering the streets, I also saw the announcement being shared on every single social media outlet and the underground network that we use to announce the fights.”

“Shit,” Eric said. He grabbed the flyer out of Tony’s hand and looked at it. “This is going to have every shifter within a hundred miles on our doorstep.”

“A much wilder bunch to control, which is exactly what he wants,” Billy said. He wasn’t surprised that Joshua had chosen to bring the match out into the open. Still, he felt his stomach roll at the idea. He hadn’t fought in front of people in… a long time.

Thea stood up and put her hand on his shoulder. “We can find another way.”

“What are you talking about?” Eric said. “This asshole has called the good ole sheriff out to the carpet. Even if he didn’t have the incentive of getting what he needs for his cure, if he didn’t show it would look like he was a pussy.”

“You should watch your mouth,” Billy said. “Especially around your sister.”

Eric rolled his eyes. “She’s heard me say a lot fucking worse.”

“That’s true,” Thea said with a shake of her head.

“Doesn’t make it right,” Billy said. He didn’t like the casual manner in which Eric seemed to demand the attention of the room. He felt tired suddenly, and he knew that wasn’t a good sign. His anxiety levels were higher than normal, and that brought his bear closer to the surface. That would also mean that his metabolism would start to burn through the medicine keeping the poison at bay faster than he needed.

“I need to call Lukas,” he announced. “If he finds out about this before I tell him, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

“You can use the phone in the back office.” Kyle pointed to another door toward the back of the room.

“Thanks,” Billy said. He made his way into the back office and shut the door behind him. He ran a hand through his hair and prepared himself for the conversation to come. Lukas wasn’t going to be happy about being interrupted in the middle of Maren’s delivery, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to be happy to hear about what was going on in Copper City. Billy wished for the calm of the day before, when all he had to worry about was the noise and crowds of the city.

He went to the phone and dialed Lukas’s cell number. It took three rings before the man answered, which was unusual. “Kasper.”

“It’s me,” Billy said.

“I’ve been trying your cellphone all day,” Lukas said. “Those Urban Dweller assholes spring you from jail yet?”

“Yes,” Billy said. “But we have a situation here, Lukas.”

“What…hang on a second,” Lukas replied. Billy could hear a hushed voice in the background.

A moment later, Maren’s voice filled the line. “Billy! Are you all right?”

“I’m okay for now,” Billy said.

“Thank God,” Maren said. “I just wanted to tell you before Lukas messed it up. It’s a girl.”

Billy could hear the pleasure and excitement in Maren’s voice. He smiled. It was nice to hear some good news. “That’s great, M. I’m happy for you guys. What’s her name?”

“Ella. After my grandmother. She’s beautiful, Billy. I can’t wait for you to meet her,” Maren said. Then her voice grew serious. “Do you need him, Billy?”

“No,” Billy said. He kept his voice firm. He knew if he said the word, Maren would let Lukas come to Copper City, but there was nothing the alpha could do for him. “In fact, it’s better that Lukas stay as far away from this place as possible.”

“Okay. I want you to know we’re here if you need us,” Maren said. Billy heard the shuffle as she handed the phone back to Lukas.

“Congratulations, Lukas,” Billy said. “You must be proud.”

“As long as she takes after her mother, I’ll be happy and lucky,” Lukas said. “I can be on the first flight out in the morning.”

“There are more of them here, Lukas,” Billy said. He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if Lukas came to Copper City and then something happened to him. “And Joshua is the one who poisoned me.”

“Are you shitting me?” Lukas’s voice was incredulous.

“I’m afraid not.” Billy spent the new few minutes giving Lukas the rundown of what had happened since that morning.

“I expect to hear from you as soon as the fight is over,” Lukas said. “I don’t envy what you have to do, but I know you’ll get it done.”

“Yes, I will,” Billy said. He chuckled as he heard Maren’s voice again in the background asking for the phone.

“Billy, a shifter match? You give that guy hell,” Maren said. Joshua and his crew had kidnapped Maren before the Shifter Summit, and even though Billy didn’t think Maren had it in her to hurt a fly, she didn’t look the other way when something needed to be taken care of. In that respect, she had grown into her own as Lukas’s mate and the wife of the alpha inside the clan.

“I’ll do my best,” Billy said. They said their goodbyes, and then Billy hung up the phone. He turned and was surprised to see Thea standing just inside the doorway leaning against the wall. He hadn’t heard her come into the room. It was yet another sign that although he was feeling okay, things weren’t right with his senses and his body.

“How long have you been standing there?” he asked. He moved toward her. His fingers ached to touch her skin.

“You said you were calling Lukas, but it sounded like you were talking to someone else,” Thea said.

“Maren,” Billy replied. He closed the distance between them. “Lukas’s mate. Their baby was born today.”

“Your voice sounded different when you spoke to her,” Thea said. Billy realized that Thea was far more perceptive than he had given her credit in reading the situation. “Like there was something else there.”